jeromep

To be honest, is the Princess cruising crowd really a night club crowd? I've been on the ships that had Skywalkers, both the shopping cart handle and the behind the funnel wings, and often went to check out the night life up there in the evenings, and frankly, it wasn't exactly a packed house. Maybe I was on the wrong cruises to see the real Princess night club crowd, but this lack of a designated night club space might be a calculated move by Princess.

Using the Piazza as the night club seems like a bit of a push. I had a bad feeling about the Majestic and the Chinese cruising market. That was going to be a tough nut to crack, and additionally there isn't a history of pleasure cruising, let alone long distance pleasure sailing (i.e. transatlantic crossing) in the modern Chinese culture. I also suspect that the requirement of Princess to basically run the ship while a third party did all the bookings and management of the cabin sales was a sticking point that didn't work out long term. I sure hope that Princess does reconfigure Majestic for the domestic market during a dry dock. I think the Hollywood Conservatory is a great feature for a ship that may spend a great deal of its life, or at least warmer months doing the Alaska run, but the lack of a functional night club space is quite a bit of a drag.

You'll want to go over to the North American Homeports section, especially the West Coast Departures threads to view what is being asked and then provide advice as appropriate. But the boards are kind of an organized free-for-all, so chip in when you wish.

Ah the glove "thing". I have an RV. I always wear gloves to dump my tanks. If you do your tank routine correctly and have decent equipment you never spill the forbidden fluid and you don't get it on your gloved hands either. However, the gloves are there just in case. Once your tank routine is all done and your hoses are put away and buttoned up, the very last thing is to carefully, like a nurse or doctor, remove the gloves in a very specific manner to avoid having the outside of the glove touch your skin, and then into the trash (which is usually convenient to a dump station). Then I head back into the rig to wash my hands with soap and water (for a rather long time with lots of agitation) and off you go. For gloves to work as protection from contaminated buffet utensils you have to remove the gloves in a very particular way to avoid any contact with any of your skin. Medical professionals are pretty good at this, but note when seeing a doctor that their routine is usually to come into the exam room, wash, put on the gloves, do their thing, remove the gloves and then wash again. While gloves may be great protection, washing is the only real protection we have against contact spread diseases and germs (like Noro). So, yes, I too am sarcastic about gloves being some kind of talisman that protects all.

Uber/Lyft: yes, for all ground transport in Seattle. Drivers are generally very good, cars are generally very clean and you can see them coming and going on the app. It is the only way I do ground transport in Seattle when I don't have my car with me. TSA at SeaTac is a mess. Use the luggage transfer services that others have suggested, if possible, it will make your life a whole lot easier. Also, use the SEA Spot Saver to schedule your trip through screening. https://www.portseattle.org/SEAspotsaver You'll want to be at SeaTac about 2:30 for your flights, that is mostly to accommodate getting through TSA, and using the Spot Saver to schedule a time will help you get through a lot quicker, too. I'm a huge fan of 13 Coins for dining in the Seattle area. They have one location in Pioneer Square and another outside of the airport, but you could spit inside the airport fence from the 13 Coins location at SeaTac, it is that close. Google maps is your friend when looking for stuff in Seattle (or anyplace) and you can get a feel for where places are, if they are walk-able or if you will need an Uber.

The Mediterranean is very nice. My wife typically stays there when she has to visit her home office in Seattle. It is walking distance to her office. Neighborhood is basically pretty decent, you are on the edge of Belltown and lower Queen Ann. But I warn you, Seattle is looking pretty rough these days. The Emerald City isn't nearly as shiny as it used to be. I can't speak to the parking situation at the Med., but I'd call their front desk and talk with them. We get so reliant on web sites and impersonal booking systems that we forget all you have to do is pick up the phone and call a place and the front desk clerk or concierge will generally give you good advice, especially if you call during the normal business day where you get that hotel's "A" team. The Warwick is a noted property in Seattle. It is at least 4 stars if not better. Building is a bit of an architectural landmark. Not old architecture, but more modern. Very distinct looking. Not sure when it was built, I think in the 60s. It has its own private parking garage which is limited access. Catalytic converter theft in Seattle is a huge problem, so whatever vehicle parking you choose needs to be something that is reasonably secure and off street.

I did a transfer from Princess to a TA a couple of months back. The TA I took the existing booking to provided me the transfer form, partially completed with the information I'd already given them about the cruise. I basically only had to sign it. I sent it back to my TA and they filed it with Princess. The transfer occured in just about a day and it was all done. Your TA should be filing the transfer request for you and then following up with Princess if there are any difficulties. I'm surprised that you are hauling the mail on this one.

Or purchase Princess Plus, which includes gratuities, includes a decent beverage package, has a few additional perks, and allows for one device connected to the Internet.

We visited Glacier bay on Princess many years ago, 2011 to be specific, on the Golden Princess. Glacier Bay is forked, with two inlets that you can travel into. On our cruise we went up the inlet that had the Marguerite glacier. I believe that is the Tarr Inlet Please don't mark my words, as I'm remembering all of this from 12 years ago and referencing Google maps. We were close to the glacier, close enough to be very cold when out on our balcony and we could hear the ice as it groaned and moved. We didn't experience any massive ice calving activity. It was incredibly cold when our side of the ship faced the glacier, lots of floating ice was "kissing" the hull with an occasional "thunk" that I'm pretty sure could be heard through most of the ship. When the ship turned 180 to allow the other side of the ship to view the glacier we were in bright, direct sunlight and it was like 70 degrees out. Amazing contrast. Anyway, the inlet the ship goes up is determined by the parks service and I think has something to do with wildlife migration or birthing. I didn't feel short changed at all by our Glacier Bay experience. While the Royal class ships are quite a bit larger than the older Grand class ships, they are still "small" enough to carefully get into and out of Glacier bay and provide the same viewing experience as the older ships. If you want to "kiss" the glacier, the you do have to purchase an excursion which will take you off the ship and put you on a smaller vessel that will get you substantially closer to glacier faces. I honestly didn't feel the need for the "Niagara falls" grade tour. Someday I might, and it seems only reasonable that if I want an intimate experience with any of the glaciers, I'll have to be on a much smaller vessel. I would say this, the park rangers that embark the ship at the beginning of the day are excellent, have wonderful presentations and have a lot of information to share about Glacier Bay, especially if you ask questions and engage with them.

The roots of Solvang are then very genuine, having been established by Danes. That is really quite remarkable. I really liked the place. We didn't get any history on it when we visited. In fact our port day was a Sunday, Easter Sunday. When our bus arrived the whole town was just about dead. There was one tourist shop open, and the restaurants were open. We really needed that tourist shop because we had our then 22 month old daughter with us and the bus ride hadn't been good for her and my wife needed a new shirt. You can fill in the blanks. Leavenworth becoming Bavarian was almost totally to save the town from oblivion. The small towns and cities that dot the Cascade foothills, especially on the eastern side of the range, existed due to the logging industry, coal mining industry, (yes there is coal in the Washington Cascades, it isn't very good coal, but it was once economically viable to mine it) and railroad support. All of those industries are a shadow of what they once were, and so most of the towns have shriveled up and nearly died. In the 60s Leavenworth got the idea to convert itself into a tourist town, it had been a logging town, it sits in a narrow valley carved by the Wenatchee River and has high cliffs that surround the town, so it is rather Bavarian looking, at least environmentally. The city's name was good for pretending to be a German town, so all they had to do was to enforce building appearance standards on the central business district, create a plaza or two, put down brick pavers in the intended tourist areas, and then schedule the various typical Bavarian seasonal events and voila, you have a tourist town. I make it sound simple, but it wasn't. Now it has little hotels or pensions that sit on top of little shops and restaurants on street level, it has a very expensive and extensive resort/destination spa hotel, a number of 3.5 star non-chain/franchise, hotel properties, a number of near town campgrounds and quite a few adventure sports concessionaires. We usually visit a couple of times a year considering that it isn't a terribly long drive from home. You get a couple blocks away from the touristy area and business district and residential Leavenworth looks a lot like other former Cascade industry towns, like Cle Elum. Thanks for the insight on Solvang. I certainly didn't get any from the cruise line. And I didn't notice on our port day many historical markers. I must not have been looking close enough. I kind of guessed that was the distance it was from the dock. The drive in the coach felt like the time on board matched up with what a 35 mile drive would feel like. I guess for me, in response to the OPs original question, if a local says there are plenty of Ubers to get you back to the dock then great, but it didn't feel that way 5+ years ago.

A number of years ago we did the Solvang on your own "tour". Yes, it was a coach from the dock to Solvang and back. I can't imaging trying to do it via Uber or Lyft. The drive on the bus was rather long and Solvang feels pretty remote and far away from Santa Barbara. We are glad we did it. The first thing we did in town was visit the Solvang Restaurant and have Aebleskivers, the ball shaped "pancakes", or rather quick bread, that are supposedly Dutch. There is a regional chain in the Spokane and Pullman, WA area called Old European that also makes Aebleskivers. The ones at the Solvang Restaurant were as good or better than the ones from Old European. Nice place, a little dated inside, but the product and service were good. It was kind of charming. Felt like a place the locals go. Solvang reminded me, in principal at least, of Leavenworth, WA, which is a Bavarian themed town. Solvang feels much bigger than Leavenworth, but both cities work hard to enforce building rules that keep the structures Dutch or German in appearance and keep up the tourist vibe. Oh, and if anyone is into movies, Solvang is the central city in which the movie "Sideways" takes place. The restaurant the main characters are seen eating at in many scenes is an actual restaurant in Solvang. Watch the movie before you go if you want to see some of the sights before you end up there. It is a kind of funny movie too.

Possibly one of the best reviews in the forums. Nicely structured, covers just about everything we ask about, and includes great photos. It has been a pleasure to read.

Seattle Express is an excellent service, and if you really want to shuttle with others, that is great. I've done price comparisons lately and have not found Seattle Express to be much more competitive, if any more competitive than just using a careshare service. No matter the purpose of my travel, I almost exclusively use Uber or Lyft. Depending on the type of Uber or Lyft you select (XL, black car, etc.), A SeaTac area hotel to Pier 91 will run you between $45 and 95. You'll be in the 65-95 range for black car or XL service. You can do estimates on both Lyft and Uber web sites. Prices are similar. Check out https://seattleexpress.com/ if you want to shuttle with others. We've shuttled in Seattle to the port a time in the past and frankly I found the process exasperating. Various stops, other people that weren't quite ready to go. Loading and unloading of luggage, being squished together in a van. Nah. I'll take a carshare service any day.

This question might be better answered in the RCI forum because the embarkation process is up to the cruise line. It really isn't dependent on the embarkation port. As a Princess cruiser I can tell you that embarkation group times are just a suggestion, they are never enforced. But Princess and RCI are very different cruise lines. As the same question over with the Royal Caribbean board and you'll get a much more accurate answer.

Excellent question. First off, your observation of no hotels near Pier 91 is totally correct. It is a very industrial area, and accessed by a bridge. Not all hotels advertise park and cruise packages, which are identical to park and fly packages. A good way to handle this is to call the hotel direct and speak with their front desk. The local management knows better how they handle park and fly/cruise packages. It doesn't matter if you use a park and fly package for your cruise, the hotel won't care, but they do want to know when you will be back to retrieve your car and your package price will be based on the number of days the car stays at the hotel. We also drive to the port when doing Alaska cruises. We don't try to be near downtown, no real need if our goal is to drive in the night before, get some sleep, leave the car parked and get transportation to the pier. I highly recommend the Ceaderbrook Lodge. It is in the Seatac area, but is more secluded and is a much higher end location. They do offer a park and fly package. It isn't the least expensive, but the location feels more secure than other airport hotels which offer the park and flys and the accommodations are better than a regular hotel. We use Uber or Lyft to get to and from the pier. We aren't much into regular taxis and the pricing of Seattle Express shuttles isn't better than pricing from a carshare service.

Lots of services will do delivery. Instacart, Drizly, Doordash, Grubhub, Postmates. Any of them will do the trick. You'll probably get better pricing if you choose to order direct form Total Wine and have them conduct the delivery. Note, the delivery services, all offer a "white box" offering to various other companies. So, when you order food delivered from Taco Bell, KFC, McDonalds, from their app or web site, they are using one of the above services to actually get the order to you. The last time I did order delivery from a fast food joint, the order was tracked through their app, but it was a DoorDash driver that got it to me. I suspect that Total Wine is doing similar. If you have specific tastes, then Total Wine is probably the way to go. Otherwise, heading to SeaTac Liquor and Wine might be just as satisfactory without the delivery overhead. Or you could just get an Uber or Lyft and go to Total Wine on your own and meander the aisles on your own and pick out what you want. No delivery fee or mark-up, but you have the cost of the Uber ride. The delivery services will deliver anywhere so long as they can drive there. When I've been on business trips and have used Uber Eats or DoorDash for food, sometimes they will go directly to your room, sometimes you are staying at a place where guest accommodation elevators and areas of the property are off limits to non-guests, so you have to meet your driver in the lobby. Either way, they will deliver to whatever hotel you are at.

Congratulations on your first cruise. I hope you have a great time. How much you enjoy cruising is really up to you. You have many questions, I may provide multiple posts. Pack a small med kit. Pack in it typical OTC medications you would normally use in your regular life. The onboard clinic is very capable, but also very expensive. Your normal medical insurance at home will likely cover little or nothing of a visit to the doctor on board. Travel insurance will reimburse for your visit to the doctor, but you'll be paying out of pocket on your onboard account until you can file the paperwork with your insurance and get reimbursed. You are only going to go there if something is really wrong with you, otherwise "doctor, heal thyself." You'll want OTC stuff for cold and sinus issues, seasickness and nausea, gastrointestinal malaise, pain relief. A couple bandages wouldn't hurt, and some antibiotic ointment. Basically pack whatever OTC meds you'd normally use in a typical year. You are unlikely to need any of this, but you'll definitely need it when you need it, so pack it anyway. Hand sanitizing wipes are a good idea to carry, however the active ingredients in your typical Wet Ones and Purell and the knock offs are ineffective at protecting you from Noro. So, wash your hands frequently and wash them prior to every meal or eating occasion. It is a ritual for us to wash our hands in our cabin and then gingerly make our way to the dining room without touching anything with our hands. You can do it. It is just one of those things that you get used to when cruising. Also you'll want to pack a package of sanitizing wipes, the kitchen and bathroom type. We tend to wipe down all cabinetry handles, door handles, drawer knobs, telephones, TV remotes, faucet handles, toilet flush handles, and such once we get on board and to our cabin. Sounds weird, but it is piece of mind for us. Power strips with surge suppressors are verboten and will be confiscated by your cabin steward. They require a type of ground which the ship doesn't have. You can bring along power strips or blocks which do not have surge suppression, but I'd recommend just bringing along power bricks that lean toward USB charging, so you can power all of your devices. We have a power adapter with 4 USB outlets on it and we charge all of our devices from it. It has never been questioned by staff. There aren't a lot of wall outlets in a regular cabin on the Grand, so be prepared to do a bit of device swapping unless you get a USB power charging station of some kind. External batteries are just fine. They don't care about things like that.

Princess has a nice walk through on the app, but it goes like this. Visit the muster station to check in. They will scan your medallion and that counts for knowing where you would go in an emergency. Then you can watch the safety procedures video on the cabin TV or on your phone. Either one will count for you and your party. And at some point before departure they will make the safety announcement test message over the PA. You are basically done with the muster check in once you have checked in at your muster station and watched the video. You can do this in any order, watch the video first then go to the muster station to be scanned or vice versa. I've read that a number of people will turn on the safety video in their cabin on the TV while they are unpacking. So, kill two birds with one stone.

I'm curious, too. Have you joined your role call for your sailing?

Tell me the programming is being done offshore without telling me the programming is being done offshore.

Basic telephone customer service at Princess has been severely lacking through the restart. It has been pretty bad. While I'm not a huge fan of the call centers blatantly misinforming callers, I also encourage all of us to consider the difficulty of handling a cruise line call center where you have all types of calls coming in and the quantity of data about ports, itineraries, ships, embarkation, disembarkation, and such is highly variable different for every port. The embarkation at one port may not look anything like the embarkation at another port. Cruising is a highly variable product and all the documentation in the world can't solve for what an employee in a call center needs to know do to their job effectively. We don't always get it right here. Read some of the other threads and you'll see varying levels of accuracy of information, heated disagreement amongst posters, personal opinions that are "sold" as fact and some folks that are just as blatantly inaccurate as some of the call center staff. I'm glad you believe you have been properly informed.

The cruise director and staff know the age makeup of who is on board the ship. If they notice a significant contingent of post-teens that are in the odd gap between being adults and legal to drink, they may arrange some young adult meet-and-greets. If they offer that, it will be listed in the patter. Otherwise, hanging out at the pool or hot tub and not being shy is the next best way to meet people. Also, check in with the teen club leader and see what they know about ages of passengers on board and if they know of anything going on for the post-teens. They can always get a word back to the cruise director staff that there is an interest in a meet-and-greet

Princess uses Pier 91 (Smith Cove). The only reliable way to get there from anyplace is via taxi, carshare (Uber/Lyft), or shuttle van. I would encourage using a carshare service before any of the others. Easy to determine where they are as you are waiting for them to pick you up, plus you pick your exact end point and the carshare driver knows exactly where you need to be dropped off. Your travel party size will probably require an UberXL or equivalent. Boarding groups with Princess are a suggestion, not a rule. You don't really need to pay any attention to them, because port staff and Princess certainly don't. If you are in the waiting hall and they are boarding the ship, you'll be queued up to go on board. If you are in a suite or Elite with Princess you may have priority boarding. But if you arrive at or before 11, you'll flow through security and then into the waiting hall, and if they are boarding the ship, right onto the ship. They service two ships at a time on Pier 91, typically a HAL cruise is also embarking while Princess is embarking. The porters and staff will be asking if you are Princess or HAL and point you in the right direction. The passenger terminal at Pier 91 is a newer facility, but not brand new. It is quite large, and the waiting hall is very open. There will be a lot of background noise. I think it is worse than the airport, but that is just me. I've always felt that boarding cruise ships is a bit chaotic, even if it is organized. I don't envy your need to try to pre-communicate to your child what is going to occur, because, honestly, there is no good way to do so in this kind of environment. Princess will only start boarding the ship after every passenger from the previous cruise is off the ship. While Princess provides a nice and relaxing cruise, that last morning on board is a lot like the "Bu-bye" skits that were on Saturday Night Live in the 90s; they want you off the ship and they make no bones about getting you off the ship as quickly as possible; "Cruise is over, go home!" So, while I don't really enjoy the cruise embarkation process, I find the disembarkation process even less hospitable. Don't make dinner reservations through the app until you are on board. And you can always call the dine line from your cabin to do that. While the Medallion is very cool and is just a sophisticated replacement for the old cruise card, with some additional on board "geolocation" technology, the app is both a bit spotty in terms of its reliability, and its functionality on shore is pretty limited to what it can do until you are on board. I think the app works fairly well on board for its intended purpose. I would recommend ensuring that you have the most recent version of the app on your device before you get on board. As for dining, if you need a secluded corner of an MDR, they will do their best to accommodate you, but as others have said, you'll be dining later to get that kind of accommodation. I find that MDR service is much better if you dine later in the evening rather than earlier. You won't starve on board and shouldn't feel attached to a dining schedule. Free food and small bites are always available at the International Cafe, 24/7. You might find the buffet more to your liking depending on the evening and how everyone is feeling. There is a lot of dining space in and around the Horizon Court (or is it the World Fresh Marketplace on the Royal?). It wouldn't be hard to find a corner and take it over. Specialty restaurants like Sabatini's and Crown Grill often have secluded spaces, if you are up for a cover charge meal that is a bit elevated over the MDR. And don't forget, pizza, burgers and dogs are available at the pizza stand and grill on the Lido deck near the main pool. Assuming that the Medallion and app are working properly and the ship is not understaffed, you can also order "room service" from the app and they will deliver it to wherever you happen to be, not just in your room.

Journalists ask questions of people. If they are doing their job right, they will ask others questions and present different viewpoints of others and let the reader decide. I have no issue answering a few of your questions. There is way too much food on board to have just one or two favorites. My wife considers most MDR cruise food, especially on Princess, "continental". It leans on the tradition of western European multi-course meal presentations. Things you'd typically see in what is now the UK or France. It isn't very "Americanized". For me, cruise dining is about trying out foods which are unlikely to be on a menu at home. However, after a week or two on board you do get tired of chilled soups and dishes which have been constructed vertically. The good news is that when you are tired of MDR food there are always a lot of other options. A lot of Princess loyalists will tell you their favorite appetizer is the fettuccine Alfredo. The biggest issues with that dish is that is has been absent from MDR menus on most ships since the restart and ramp up. A few of the threads here indicate that it has appeared back on the MDR dinner menus on some ships, but it doesn't seem to be a universal change. Many have requested it off menu and have been served the dish, but a lot of us feel a lot better when we see that on the menu every night. So, as an appetizer the fettuccine Alfredo is excellent and I"m hoping it will be back on all the menus very soon. You don't find Beef Wellington at Applebee's; or anyplace else in the states, unless it is a high end steakhouse that likes to specialize in "old school" dishes. Otherwise, you have to make it on your own. It isn't especially hard to make, just involved and time consuming. Of course, a beef roast like Wellington is great for cruise dining rooms because, in reality cruise MDR food is basically served banquet style. There are a lot less menu items on an MDR dinner menu than on the menu at Applebee's. This points to the unique nature of cruise dining. 1. You have limited kitchen and pantry space to stock up for a cruise, which will limit the number of dishes or different foods you can make. 2. When you have 3000 people to feed 3 times a day or more often, you have to streamline your kitchen so you have a limited number of dishes to prepare with each meal and you can maintain the pace of feeding all those people... just like banquet service. So, Beef Wellington remains one of my favorite main dishes on a cruise. As for deserts, Princess has had this chocolate mousse desert called the Love Boat Dream around forever. It used to be a firm chocolate mousse that is formed into a heard shape by a mold, kind of like jello, and then popped out on a plate and garnished with some fruit sauce, a mint leaf, and sometimes some kind of chocolate construction. It was very good, very rich. But there are lots of photos of it online from recent cruises, and it seems to have changed a lot or has a lot of different pastry chefs making odd interpretations of what it is supposed to be. It is still one of my favorites, however it may be going the way of the fettuccine Alfredo. My favorite cover charge restaurant on board is Sabatini's. Excellent Italian at a competitive price relative to the service and presentation. Crown Grill is also good, but it can vary greatly depending on the quality of the steaks they are acquiring. There seems to be less variability from ship to ship in Sabatini's. What publication do you write for? Is this a freelance gig?

First thing I'd say is that I have no reason to doubt your experience. These are all plausible observations, and certainly real from your perspective. I've shared this before on the threads, but the most difficult thing for any service provider to provide is consistency, and this your experience doesn't match with my experience with Princess, but if you troll the boards enough you'll find that Princess still seems to be restarting after emerging from the shut down. I also believe that Princess has a staffing issue. If you are sailing on one of the more recent new builds, like the Discovery, Enchanted or Sky Princess, you'll likely not experience this. They seem to put their "A" teams on the new builds as there is both demand amongst cruisers to be on the newer ships and they want the newness of the ship to dovetail with the service experience. But that also means that the older ships will either operate with staff shortages or less experienced staff, resulting in the experience you had. I feel bad that you had such an experience, I would also be dissatisfied if I had your observations of the cruise. Another observation of late is that service and food vary greatly on the older ships. It feels like the perfect storm of under staffing and less experienced staff on the older ships, again going back to the line having limited human resources and wanting their best foot put forward on the new builds. I also suspect there may be an on board leadership issue. If the leadership on board a ship is top notch, you'll have happier more motivated staff who will make the experience excellent. If the leadership is lackluster or downright negative, that passes through to the staff and service. I really like the Ruby Princess. We sailed on her many years ago for a Caribbean cruise. This was just before the Royal class ships had been introduced and the Ruby was the newest ship in the fleet. At the time they had their "A" team on board and you could tell. I suppose the only thing I can say is to give Princess another chance in a couple of years. The farther the shutdown is in the rear view mirror the more likely that more ships will be more consistent with each other as staffing and provisioning ships stabilizes out.